INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Crypto firm FTX founder slams crypto industry messaging on Russia sanctionsCommunications from the cryptocurrency industry around sanctions
on Russia have been counterproductive and do not reflect what the firms are actually doing, the head of crypto exchange FTX said.Unlike
payment companies, most crypto exchanges have rejected calls to cut off all Russian users, sparking concerns among United States lawmakers
that digital assets could be used to evade Western sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine."I'm very frustrated with the messaging
that our industry has had on this," Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, which was recently valued at $32 billion, told Reuters late
Thursday."I think it has not been helpful
I think it has been basically anti-regulatory, is how it's been perceived, and I think that's how it sounds, and I think that has caused
a pretty big perception issue," he said on the sidelines of a Futures Industry Association conference in Boca Raton, Florida.Democratic
United States senators introduced a bill on Thursday that would enable the government to sanction foreign cryptocurrency firms doing
business with sanctioned Russian entities and prevent them from transacting with United States customers.Bahamas-based FTX immediately cut
off support to all sanctioned parties and severed access to all Russian banks, even those that are not sanctioned, so the exchange could not
be used as a gateway between Russia and the rest of the world, Bankman-Fried said.FTX still allows non-sanctioned Russian users to trade,
with anti-money laundering checks, and is in communication with the United States Treasury about what it is doing in Russia, said
Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old crypto billionaire.Exchanges like Binance and Kraken have said cutting off all Russians goes against the
industry's libertarian values."I don't think this is really about the content of the decisions," Bankman-Fried said of such responses
"It's about the way that they've been presented."(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff
and is published from a syndicated feed.)
